Hyundai Elantra Prices Paid and Buying Experience

Comments

i have only looked at a couple of post so far and still need to test drive a few compacts. elantra is on my short list fer sure.

Not to be nit picking but OTD (out the door) price should NOT include tax & license. This only confuses the math when someone is wanting to see what you paid for the car. ie. your negotiated price has nothing to do with what your state is going to charge ya....unless you know the gov. really well.

i recently flew from louisiana to kentucky to buy a car for my daughter simple because i was able to save an extra $2k (after flight and hotel expenses) over my best deal at home. The best advise i can give is get the online Consumer Report print-out for the car you want BEFORE you even think about making your offer. With that info in-hand, plus what you read on this forum, you will know the cheapest price. "Knowledge is power" in the car-buying game. The report is called Consumer Report.org "New Car Price Service Report". GURGLE IT. It will give you a complete breakdown of all options and invoice price on each option, and also gives you lots of tips on negotiating. The one I liked, and used to buy my daughther's Acura, was e mailing dealers with an offer. I did this after I got nowhere with my 3 in-state dealers. I sent out 5 offers and got 4 counter offers and 1 in KY that accepted my offer to the letter!. No doc fees, no tire fees, no BS. Got it for a few hundred under invoice price plus discounts of about $3100 in Dealer Incentive and Dealer Holdback. Got to see Louisville and enjoyed the ride home. Point is, do your homework first.... shop hard....be firm but nice....have fun doing it.

If elantra turns out to be the winner, i will be back. Only thing i am concerned with is that supply may be low.....which will make it much harder to negotiate. (Has anyone heard this) I may have to have backup cars to look at. BTW....I am going to look at Corrola, Jeep Patriot, Nisan Sentra, Mazda3, Nissan Versa.

Not trying to bust your chops, but the out-the-door price SHOULD include tax and license fees. That's kinda what out-the-door price means... it's your total price including everything. That means tag, title, licensing, and all dealer fees. You can view edmunds.com talking about it here:

His point is, those fees and taxes very so much from area to area (due to different tax and registration laws) that they should be broken out. And it's a very good point too, it could make as much as a $1500 difference in "OTD" price.

I'm going to have to go the other way on this and support adding all costs to the OTD figure and definition. If you show what the TT&L fees are - you're providing the most comprehensive price you can. For instance, in VA there is a "Dealer Processing Fee", but in MD they don't charge one (at least not under that name - and certainly not in that high an amount) which is why a lot of folks from Northern VA will often travel to MD to buy - it can make a few hundred dollars difference. Additionally, the "processing fee" within the state of VA can differ (a little) depending on geographic location which is useful for buyers in that state. Also, including ALL charges encountered in the cost breakout will show what can be expected in charges over and above a "best deal" in case you (or someone else) overlooked something when budgeting for the new vehicle.

Perhaps we could call the pre-TT&L fees figure the "negotiated price", or "sale price".

Yes, you're right. Regardless of whether someone is posting their OTD or the price of their car before taxes and title, the numbers they give are really only marginally useful if they don't give the breakdown of those numbers. As 09elantraowner stated above not only do taxes and title vary greatly by state, but so do dealer charges. Anyone who has actually purchased a car should have a "Buyers Order" sheet or bill of sale with a complete breakdown of the costs. It should only take about 5-10 minutes to provide the full purchase numbers by copying them from your finished paperwork. Without the true breakdown, there's just too much that you're left guessing at.

Hello All,My name is Gaslocker. I am new to this site, and I just wanted to introduce myself. I work for Hyundai to answer questions and gather feedback about our "Share Your America" Road Trip Sweepstakes, and 1.49 Gaslock campaigns. I know I'm a little late here, but I just want to see if there is any more questions I can help answer, or any feed back anyone would like to share. For more info on our "Share Your America" Sweepstakes, check out http://www.roadtripsweepstakes.comhttp://www.Facebook.com/Hyundai

Just one question: Are you seeing that it's obvious to most people that the Gaslock program is a big rip-off compared to the normal rebates, or are you finding a lot of people going for the Gaslock in lieu of the full rebate?

Hello, Gaslocker. I just came across some information from U.S. News and World Report showing that Hyundai is currently offering a $2000 cash back rebate AND the $1.49/gallon gas for a year on top of that. The article was published on August 4. Is this information correct? Here is a link to the article:

It's a $1000 rebate plus the gas deal--OR a $2000 rebate. NOT BOTH a $2000 rebate and the gas deal. The Hyundai web page lays that out pretty clearly, with the $1000 + gas deal prominently displayed, and the ** footnote that explains you can add $1000 to the rebate rather than take the gas money.

I missed it first time or two through as well. You actually have to click on the Elantra tab (left side) to see what the offer is for that model (for instance - the Sonata IS $2K + Price Lock, or $3K cash back)

I bought it in DC area. Here is my final price.$17,765 with invoice of $17,294, sale price 13,898, 959.88 sales tax(6%), $237 tag & title, $100 processing fee, final OTD $15,194.88. -4500 ctc, 10694.88. So bad do not they let me to finance to get the 400 student rebate, because my driver license is in OH.

Yep, you have to click on the "Elantra" tab to see the offer for the Elantra, and Accent tab to see the offer for the Accent, etc. I guess that was beyond the capabilities of the US News reporter. :sick:

I bought mine last night and drove it home today. I bought an 09 GLS with 5-speed, Popular Equipment Package, Floor mats, and cargo mat. Total sticker with dellivery was $16765.00 (how they ship these things from oversees and truck them to the store for $720 is beyond me.)

I was offered 10.2kOTD for a manual via email. I was driving down there to buy at that price as no other dealers would come close. My local want 10.7 for the same car and wouldn't budge a cent,

So off I went. On my trip I pass another Hyundai dealership so I whip out the blackberry, look up the number, and call them. It is out of manuals but can d an auto at 10.4k, very good deal by any means. $200 for an auto, yeah I'll go for that. Best deal I have heard yet by a long shot. That was all over the phone.

(keep in mind these dealerships are less than ten miles apart so its not like a hour drive between them so they have a lot of interest to keep you from leaving the lot)

So I met with my contact and started looking at cars and told him the price they offered me, and then he did a double take. He hated to but said they would. Then I ask if he has any 5-speeds? He does, one, and it just happened to be in the color I wanted, carbon grey. Then a asked him about how much less money it would be to which he said it was $1000 option. For the time being I just left that alone and took it for a test drive. The streering was a bit heavy but had good power and handled well. The clucth and tranny will take some getting used to though. They work fine, just what I am used to is drastically different.

We get back from the test drive and start swapping clunker paperwork and other stuff to get it verified. We finally got to price and I only spoke in OTD prices. First number he brung was $98500 plus tax,tags, title, and dealer fee. I told him I would take it at that price OTD. He groaned and said give me a minute. He left and came back with $9713.90OTD. Over a hundred less than what I offered, SOLD!

Here is the breakdown as I can decypher it from the paperwork. Total MSRP $16,765.00Final selling price $15234tax $322.02(paid yearly based in vehicle value, I miss OH's pay full value and be down with it)C4C $4500Manufactures Rebate $2,000Finale Vehicle Price $9056.02 Dealer Admin Fee $588.88Tags $69.00Final Price OTD $9713.90

Could I have done better? No. No other dealer with 100 miles would come close to this. I wore out my email account getting offers. The closest I got to this was $800 more. If I would have went in I would have got close but not this good. I am one happy camper. :shades:

Edmunds has an article under today's news that indicates that the 2010 Elantra Touring will have a base price of $1800.00 less than this year's model. There was not a lot of information about changes to the car other than the mention of an optional roof rack next year. I missed out on a deal for an 09 by $700 due to the Cash for Clunkers, the dealer would not match the TMV price. Maybe I was lucky since it sounds like the 10s will be cheaper than I was willing to pay for an 09.

They could always go to 15 inch steelies on the base model. Remove XM and Traction/Stability optional too...costs nothing to add, but likewise it costs nothing to remove. They have a ton of other head units (right in the manual no less!) with many fewer features.

I don't think they'll remove the ESC--it's a good idea on a tallish wagon like the Touring, and it's mandatory in a couple of years anyway. Satellite radio is kind of a Hyundai standard now, so that will probably stay. But steel wheels, less fancy driver's seat, plastic steering wheel, no fog lamps, more basic fabric, stuff like that... I can see pretty easily. More like the GLS sedan in trim level, in other words, but with ESC.

Which makes me wonder how they're going to differentiate GLS from SE when ESC becomes mandatory. That and the telescoping steering wheel are what make people grab SEs instead of GLSes (honestly, how many GLS models do you think they actually send here without A/C?)

The driver's seat on the Touring isn't actually that fancy. I could see dumping the fogs. Maybe ditch the steering wheel controls too. Without the wrapping that tiller is going to be awfully skinny though.

Maybe they'll start rolling out the 5-speed auto on the SE. That would be a serious differentiation. It would also make me REALLY annoyed that I was stuck without wheels and had to get the 09....

There's actually quite a difference now between the GLS and SE sedans for 2009, now that different suspension tuning has been added. Also the 16" alloys on the SE, the leather wheel/shifter, trip computer, steering wheel audio controls, plus you get the features that come as options on the GLS on the SE. Maybe for 2010 the SE will get different cloth, as the Touring has now. IMO the telescopic steering column needs to be standard across the lineup. Many competitors do that.

The Touring's driver's seat has an adjustable lumbar support, which is not available on the Elantra sedan (not since 2006 MY anyway). That's why I called it "fancy." IMO the Elantra's driver's seat has taken big steps backwards since 2006, when even on the base sedan it had lumbar adjustment and two (count 'em) height adjusters, which allowed much more control over seating position than the current seat.

I think the entire Elantra lineup needs the 5AT, which is becoming more common on competitors, including the Kia Forte. Also all the Elantras need the modern all-aluminum engines ala the Forte. One thought is to make the 2.4L available on the SE, and the up-level Touring, with the 2.0L on the GLS and maybe the base Touring. That would add serious power compared to the Beta II. Even the new 2.0L has over 150 hp.

I think the entire Elantra lineup needs the 5AT, which is becoming more common on competitors, including the Kia Forte. Also all the Elantras need the modern all-aluminum engines ala the Forte. One thought is to make the 2.4L available on the SE, and the up-level Touring, with the 2.0L on the GLS and maybe the base Touring. That would add serious power compared to the Beta II. Even the new 2.0L has over 150 hp.

Ill agree with the 5AT, but make that 2.4L an option, not a standard feature of the trim. Personally I think 2L is plenty, and I don't want to take the MPG hit.

Well, the 2.4 in the Sonata gets a combined 25MPG while the 2.0 in the Elantra has a combined of 28MPG. Considering the Sonata is around 600 pounds heavier, stuffing the 2.4 in the Elantra would probably incur a 1 or, at most, 2MPG penalty for almost 40HP more. Some people would take that trade-off.

We can get an idea of what the new 2.0L and the 2.4L would do EPA-wise in the Elantra from looking at the Forte, which is about the same size as the Elantra. The Forte's EPA ratings are 25/34 for either the 5MT or 4AT on the 2.0, and 27/36 with the 5AT and the "fuel economy package". The 2.4L gets 22/32 with the 6MT, the only tranny available with the 2.4L. Interestingly, that is exactly the same EPA rating as the Sonata gets with the 2.4L and 5AT (it gets 21/32 with the 5MT).

So depending on driving style and pattern, and the drivetrain, it could be anywhere from a 2 mpg to 5 mpg difference between the 2.0 and 2.4, or around 10-20%. While you get more power with the 2.4L, the current Elantra engine is plenty peppy for me, so I expect the new 2.0L with over 150 hp would be just fine power-wise. If I want power, I could get a Sonata V6 or Genesis coupe or something like that.